Nonstop flights between San Diego and Japan will remain sporadic as Japan Airlines struggles to operate its routes without the grounded Dreamliner.

While it just decided this week to start using the larger 777 aircraft for the San Diego route beginning Jan. 30, the airline announced Thursday it will have to cancel round-trip service on Feb. 3. However, flights scheduled for Feb. 1 will be able to use the 777, JAL said.

The recent grounding of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner following repeated battery malfunctions has made it challenging for JAL to reschedule all of its flights that depended on that aircraft.

"JAL is utilizing standby aircraft, as well as adjusting fleet schedules for other routes and for maintenance, to keep all the affected flights operating as scheduled as much as possible," airline spokeswoman Sze Hunn Yap said.

"The various requirements of each route, such as the distance, flight timings, time taken for turnarounds, etc., can make it a complex process to reschedule. The rotation of these aircraft at the moment calls for this arrangement and cancellations on certain routes."

The 777 has 245 seats, compared to the 186 seats on JAL's 787, a more technologically advanced aircraft capable of overcoming the challenges of Lindbergh Field's shorter runway and the headwinds on the route to Asia.

In order to fly between Japan and San Diego, the 777 will have to operate at less than its full passenger and cargo load.

San Diego's nonstop service to Narita International Airport, which debuted in early December, has been on hold since last Wednesday when the first of several round-trip flights were cancelled following persistent battery problems.

All 50 of the 787 Dreamliners that Boeing has delivered to airlines were grounded after an overheated battery forced the emergency landing last week of an All Nippon Airways 787 flight in western Japan.

The current nonstop service calls for Japan Airlines to fly four times a week between Lindbergh Field and Narita, with plans to expand to daily service in March. Whether that will happen, given the current Dreamliner problems, remains unknown.